A Student's Name Matters

In class we discussed Cult of Pedagogy and it was an important topic for me because my whole life teachers and substitutes struggled with my name. They didn't know how to pronounce it and at first I didn't mind it and would just correct them but when I had arrogant manglers, nicknamers, and ***holes not think it was important to pronounce my name, it became a problem. It was a problem because I felt like my name was not important to this world, I felt as if my value was less than others, and after so long I eventually got tired. They even mispronounced my name at graduation and I didn't say anything about it. Now looking back I would of stopped walking across that stage and go correct the lady who said it but now it's too late. All I can do is be different for my own student's and show them that their names matter and I will not put them through what other teachers put them through. A student should never feel any less than others, like we discussed in class, pronouncing a name right matters, it won't be easy to say each name but as long as you try and don't give up that will good enough. An important tip our professor mentioned for this situation was to: Pull them aside and ask them to help you pronounce their name. It's the little things like this that matter.